Thursday’s HBO debut of “The Man Will Burn” launches a four-week series tracing Burning Man’s 40-year history through recent footage and interviews with founder Marian Goodell.
The documentary centers on the festival’s survival through repeated disruptions, including the 2020 and 2021 official cancellations during COVID and other operational crises Goodell describes in the trailer.
2023 footage captures one of the event’s most turbulent episodes, when heavy rain stranded thousands in thick mud after roads into and out of Black Rock City were closed.
Burning Man returns Aug. 30-Sept. 7 in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, where the temporary city typically draws more than 70,000 participants.